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My son's pediatrician has a mild-moderate stutter. When he's having a bad speech day, he'll stutter a bit. At which point, I remember - oh, he has a stutter -- because otherwise I completely forget because who cares? And then life goes on. He's also AOA from a top medical school and residency program and has been a wonderful physician for my son and my family. The guy's great -- who cares about a little speech thing?

Bottom line -- Having a stutter does not make you either less intelligent or less capable. Furthermore, it does not make you seem either less intelligent or less capable. It's just a little something unique to you, that's really not even all that unique.

Do you need to disclose it? No - Because if it happens, it'll be self-evident. And when it doesn't happen, it doesn't matter.
 
I have a mild to moderate stutter. It has not negatively affected me in anyway.

I would say try not to hide your face because that is weird and just brings more attention to your speech impediment. Also I would strongly advise not bringing it up with your resident or Attending, everyone in the medical field knows what a stutter is. Just do your best and work hard.

You can even make an attempt to stutter more frequently and severely when just hanging out and making small talk so when you stutter during the rounds they will think "dang that guy is confident, his stutter is now only moderately debilitating" (jk).
 
I think it's unnecessary and socially awkward. You will eventually stutter in front of them and then they will know you stutter. It's simple as that.

In med school I had an Attending with a really, really bad stutter. He dgaf. He was a baller and is/was really successful at a high-powered academic institution.
 
This --

Actually, I have a speech impediment also. Something with R's and W's in proximity gets my tongue all twisted up. Sometimes I breeze on through, but other times - yikes! When I get tied up i knots, I just say "oops! There's my speech impediment again" and say repeat the phrase either correctly or much, much worse, but with a chuckle. Just one of those things. In elementary school, they tried to send me to speech therapy for a while, but I told them to leave me alone because I truly wasn't bothered by it and anyone could tell what I meant.

Do that.
 
Had a guy in my lab who could have a bad stutter. He would keep looking at you and his eyes would turn up/back. Did anybody care? Not at all. When it happened the first time it became evident that he has a stutter and that's about it. Everybody working with him was cool and patient, knowing that when he stuttered you'd just have to wait until he could continue.

Bottom line: don't make it a deal when it's really not. It's ok and people understand. And those people who don't are jerks, so f*** them.
 
Dave1980 said:
I think it's unnecessary and socially awkward. You will eventually stutter in front of them and then they will know you stutter. It's simple as that.

In med school I had an Attending with a really, really bad stutter. He dgaf. He was a baller and is/was really successful at a high-powered academic institution.
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I agree with this. I don't stutter but have a close family member who does. It'll be pretty evident in normal interactions that you stutter and no need to awkwardly try to bring it up. In the end just be confident and go on being you.
 
I had a classmate with one. Got into a primo choice for residency in her field and has never struck me as anything less than a fully capable team member and future colleague.
 
You’ll have no more issues with a stutter than the average med student. Keep grinding and you’ll make a fine physician some day. Always put your patients first and no one will think of you as the guy with the stutter but as the excellent doc. Good luck.
 
By the middle of third year all of your worries will most likely be gone. After getting shat on by the surgery attending for 6 weeks in front of the surgical staff, or getting chewed out by your pediatric attending in front of families, you will gradually stop giving a rip what other people think of you and start focusing more on the work you are doing.
 
I’m not sure what accommodations you could get/would need for CS. Maybe extended time? I have a soft voice and almost failed some OSCEs because I “wasn’t projecting” (this isn’t acting school) so my advisor told me to just tell all the CS actors that I have a soft voice and to tell me if they couldn’t hear me as part of my intro spiel. Maybe you could do something similar?
 
Honestly? It sounds to me like you're so worried about the impression you make on others that you're failing to focus on them.

Forget about yourself! - really -- and worry about them.
 
Third year who also has a stutter here. Just finished my first quarter of rotations, and from a stuttering perspective it went so fine.

The biggest thing for me is that I recognized that I would feel that it would be an issue, and so I got ahead of it before third year. Like you mentioned, anxiety is really the core of the issue. When you're not anxious, you don't stutter as much. So I saw a psychiatrist at my university and got prescribed and SSRI + beta blocker prn. And it really has changed my life. Stuttering had made me anxious about how I'm being perceived by people, not only in medicine, but in my life generally, so seeing someone about anxiety really helped me. And at this point in third year, I rarely feel like I need to take a beta blocker to give a presentation or see a patient for example. And if I do need it, it's okay because now I recognize that it's a purely physiologic thing that I can exert some control over.

I've also learned that people truly don't care that you stutter. They really don't. Put yourself in someone else's shoes and you'll probably realize you wouldn't care either. It has never been a critique given to me in evaluations so far, and I've even made a point to literally ask my attending if it was a problem — they said absolutely not.

TLDR: Make an appointment at your university's student counseling and at least chat with a psychiatrist. You won't regret it.
 
one of our past chiefs had a stutter. It came out sometimes especially when he was giving a presentation, but didn't apparently stop him from doing his thing.
 
I have a stutter as well. It did bring unnecessary anxiety to 3rd year, presentations, and 4th year interviews. But most people tell me they don't notice and if they do notice it hasn't hindered me in any real way. I am now an intern who occasionally stutters but still does the best to do right by my patients. It's hard, some days, but most days I just treat it as a part of me. Just something that I do.
 
I've worked with an intern who had a moderate stutter. Interestingly enough, it came out more when he was presenting / talking to the team and less when talking to actual patients. Honestly no one ever mentioned it during the month we were on the team together and it didn't seem to impair him in any way. In my opinion, you don't have to disclose it right at the beginning. The people you work with will notice it, but they'll take their cues from how you yourself handle it. Just try your best to seem confident despite the stutter, and treat it like an annoying involuntary thing - like having a cough or something. If it makes it difficult for someone to understand you just apologize/play it off and move on.
 
DokterMom said:
My son's pediatrician has a mild-moderate stutter. When he's having a bad speech day, he'll stutter a bit. At which point, I remember - oh, he has a stutter -- because otherwise I completely forget because who cares? And then life goes on. He's also AOA from a top medical school and residency program and has been a wonderful physician for my son and my family. The guy's great -- who cares about a little speech thing?

Bottom line -- Having a stutter does not make you either less intelligent or less capable. Furthermore, it does not make you seem either less intelligent or less capable. It's just a little something unique to you, that's really not even all that unique.

Do you need to disclose it? No - Because if it happens, it'll be self-evident. And when it doesn't happen, it doesn't matter.
Click to expand...
One of my MFM attendings has a stutter and he has been very successful in his career. When he started it was pretty noticeable but now I doubt anyone pays attention to it, it may also have improved with a decrease in anxiety from being at a new job, but the punchline is don’t worry you will be fine,
 
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